Theory Subfield at the Texas A&M University
Department of Political Science

Faculty: Prof. Cary Nederman, Prof. Edward Portis, Asst. Prof. Elisabeth Ellis
Associated Faculty: Prof. Judith Baer

READING GUIDE FOR Ph.D. THEORY FIELD - 2000

Serious students quickly learn that it is impossible to know everything relevant to their interests. This is especially the case in a field of study as old and diverse as political theory. The faculty in the political theory field offer the following suggestions in the hope that they will help students structure their individual reading programs, as well as give some indication of our expectations.

I: WESTERN CLASSICS

A. All students will be expected to be familiar with the major works of the following ten theorists. Each has been the focus of a huge literature, and a brief list of selected commentary is offered as a starting point in its exploration.

Plato

· Klosko, The Development of Plato's Thought

· Saxonhouse, Fear of Diversity: The Birth of Political Science in Ancient Greek Thought

· Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher

Aristotle

· Miller, Nature, Justice and Rights

· Salkever, Finding the Mean

· Yack, Problems of a Political Animal

Augustine

· Connolly, The Augustinian Imperative

· Elshtain, Augustine and the Limits of Politics

· Markus, Saeculum

Machiavelli

· Viroli, Machiavelli

· Pitkin, Fortune is a Woman

· Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment

Hobbes

· Flathman, Thomas Hobbes

· Oakeshott, Hobbes on Civil Association

· Strauss, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes

Locke

· Ashcraft, Revolutionary Politics and Locke's Two Treatises of Government

· Grant, John Locke's Liberalism

· Tully, An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Context

Rousseau

· Melzer, The Natural Goodness of Man

· Miller, Rousseau: Dreamer of Democracy

· Shklar, Men and Citizens

J.S. Mill

· Cowling, Mill and Liberalism

· Grey, Mill on Liberty: A Defence

· Thompson, John Stuart Mill and Representative Government

Hegel

· Dallmayr, G.W.F. Hegel: Modernity and Politics

· Marcuse, Reason and Revolution

· Shklar, Freedom and Independence

Marx

· Avineri, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx

· Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defense

· Elster, Making Sense of Marx

B. Students choosing theory as their major field of study should be conversant (in varying degrees) with the thought of the following authors:

Aquinas Aurelius Bentham Bible Bodin Burke Calhoun Calvin Cicero Christine de Pizan Freud Godwin Hamilton Hume Jefferson John of Salisbury Kant Kropotkin Lenin Lincohn

Luther Madison Mandeville Marsilius of Padua Michels Montesquieu Nietzsche Paine participants in the Putney Debates Polybius Spencer Proudhon Sorel Adam Smith Thoreau Thucydides Tocqueville Weber Wollstonecraft

II: NOTABLE LITERATURE

The following lists should not be seen as required reading. Each member of the faculty in political theory contributed an equal number of suggestions in each of the categories. Consequently, there is not necessarily a consensus on any particular item. These lists are to be reassessed annually, reflecting reassessments and discoveries, as well as different perspectives provided by new members of the faculty. Even the categories are tentative, although it may be significant that present faculty could reach at least a provisional consensus on the adequacy of these.

A. American Political Thought

Arendt, On Revolution
Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
Dewey, The Public and Its Problems
Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man
Greenstone, The Lincoln Persuasion
Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America
Lippman, The Public Philosophy
Lutz, A Preface to American Political Theory
McWilliams, The Idea of Fraternity in America
Rawls, Political Liberalism
Schudson, The Good Citizen
Sinopoli, The Foundation of American Citizenship
Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars
West, The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism

B. Democratic Theory

Arendt, The Human Condition
Barber, Strong Democracy
Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory
Drysek, Discursive Democracy
Fishkin, Democracy and Deliberation
Gutmann and Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement
Gutmann, Democratic Education
Habermas, Between Facts and Norms
Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship
Macpherson, Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval
Mansbridge, Beyond Adversary Democracy
Pitkin, The Concept of Representation
Schattschneider, The Semi-Sovereign People
Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference

C. Liberalism and Its Critics

Barry, Political Argument
Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty
Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously
Galston, Liberal Purposes
Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty
Macedo, Liberal Virtues
MacIntyre, After Virtue
Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics
Rawls, A Theory of Justice
Rawls, Collected Essays
Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice
Taylor, Sources of the Self
Walzer, Spheres of Justice
Yack, The Longing for Total Revolution

D. Feminist Theory

Baer, Our Lives Before the Law
Beauvoir, The Second Sex
Benhabib, Situating the Self
Butler, Gender Trouble
Eisenstein, The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism
Elshtain, Public Man, Private Woman
Grant, Fundamental Feminism
Hartsock, Money, Sex, and Power
Hirschman, Rethinking Obligation
Hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation
Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One
Jagger, Feminist Politics and Human Nature
MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State
Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family
Pateman, The Sexual Contract

E. Critical Theory and Poststructuralism

Connolly, Identity/Difference
Fay, Critical Social Science
Foucault, The Order of Things
Foucault, Discipline and Punish
Gadamer, Truth and Method
Gramsci, Selections from Prison Notebooks
Habermas, Theory of Communicative Action
Habermas, Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere
Honig, Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics
Horkheimer and Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment
Jameson, Post-Modernism
Leonard, Critical Theory in Political Practice
Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness
Marcuse, One Dimensional Man
Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature

F. Method and Purpose of Textual Interpretation

Ball, Transforming Political Discourse
Condren, The Status and Appraisal of Classical Texts
Connolly, The Terms of Political Discourse
Gunnell, Political Theory: Tradition and Interpretation
Koselleck, Critique and Crisis
Pocock, Politics, Language, and Time
Richter, The History of Political and Social Concepts
Shapiro, Political Criticism
Skinner, Meaning and Context
Strauss, What is Political Philosophy
Strauss, Natural Right and History
Voegelin, The New Science of Politics
Wolin, Politics and Vision
Wolin, "Political Theory as a Vocation," American Political Science Review, 1969
Wood, Mind and Politics

G. Theory and Concepts in Political Science

Ball (ed.), Idioms of Inquiry
Bernstein, The Restructuring of Social and Political Thought
Brecht, Political Theory
Deutsch, The Nerves of Government
Diesing, Science and Ideology in the Policy Sciences
Fay, Social Theory and Political Practice
Gunnell, The Descent of Political Theory
Hollis, Models of Man
Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Moe, "On the Scientific Status of Rational Models," American Journal of Political Science, 1978
Moon, "The Logic of Political Inquiry," in Greenstein and Polsby (eds.), Handbook of Political Science: Vol. I
Shapiro and Green, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory
Taylor, Philosophical Papers, Vol. II
Weber, "'Objectivity' in Social Science and Social Policy," in Weber, The Methodology of the Social Sciences
Winch, The Idea of a Social Science

III: JOURNALS

There are several journals especially relevant for students of political theory. All of the major political science journals published by the national and regional associations contain theoretical articles, but Polity, published by the Northeast Political Science Association, and Political Studies, published by the Political Studies Association (British), devote more space to this field than the others. Four particularly notable political science and interdisciplinary journals specialize in political thought:

Political Theory
The Review of Politics
Journal of Political Philosophy
History of Political Thought

Finally, articles of interest can be found in a number of other journals. The following list is not exhaustive, but probably includes the most likely sources:

Critical Review
Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy
Ethics
The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms
The Historical Journal
History of European Ideas
Journal of the History of Ideas
Journal of the History of Philosophy
Journal of Political Ideologies
Inquiry
Interpretation
Philosophy and Public Affairs
Philosophy of Social Science
Political Science Reviewer
Social Research
Social Theory and Practice
Theory and Event

IV: REFERENCE

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political Thought is a useful one-volume survey of the field. There are a large number of textbooks attempting to survey the classics from a historical perspective. Although many of them are very good, many are not consistently reliable.